In plain language: Through the looking glass

Are reality and history identical? Or is reality simply his story – but not necessarily the other guy’s story?

Pro-Palestinian supporters 521.
(photo credit:Reuters)

Are reality and history identical? Or is reality simply his story – but not
necessarily the other guy’s story? Case in point: On a rather long transatlantic
plane ride some years ago, I found myself seated next to a well-educated Arab
man from one of our neighboring countries.

After several uncomfortable
hours of pretending not to notice one another, we found ourselves engaged in
what might loosely be referred to as “dialogue,” the civility of which was
largely due to the efforts of the stewardesses, who kept the decibels at
tolerable levels and prevented the exchange from going ballistic. (Mind you,
this was back in the days when you could actually debate with a Muslim; today
they just bar you from speaking and/or blow you up, which tends to pretty much
cut short any argument.) My central question was why the Arabs were so opposed
to the great American pastime of compromise. Why were they determined to always
take a maximalist position, even if it ensured unending war and suffering
between our peoples? What was so toxic to them about finding common ground?
After a whole lot of back and forth, I began to grasp, though certainly not
embrace, the “other”’s point of view. The gist of my protagonist’s narrative
went something like this: “You stole all of our land; none of it whatsoever
belongs to you.

Why, then, should we compromise? Would you settle 50-50
with a thief? It’s enough that we even admit you exist; why should we give up
anything that rightfully belongs to us?” The moment my fellow traveler uttered
these words, I was immediately taken back to my first visit to Auschwitz. A
Polish guide, speaking to a large group of Polish schoolchildren about the death
camp, informed them that “here, more than a million Poles were murdered.”
Someone in our group, who spoke fluent Polish, asked the guide, “Why did you not
tell the students that most of those who were killed here were Jews?” The guide
looked at him with disdain and replied, “It’s enough that I called them
Poles.”

OF COURSE, our own Jewish/Israeli narrative is far removed from
the Arab version.

Despite the obsessive attempts at historical
revisionism undertaken by our adversaries, we know that this is our ancestral
homeland to which we have been spiritually and emotionally attached,
uninterruptedly, for 2,000 years. For hundreds of years we also kept a
continuous physical presence in the land, to the extent that hostile forces
would allow us. We know from numerous reports that this land was mostly desolate
throughout the centuries, waiting for us to return and miraculously bring the
land to life once again – which then caused all the surrounding people to flock
to it and covet it as their own. We have paid for this tiny parcel of earth – in
blood, money and tears – a hundredfold. If we are willing to share this land
with others, it is not out of a sense of guilt or reparation, but out of a
genuine love of peace and non-violence.

While we accept that others may
not subscribe to our narrative, we ourselves must never doubt our legitimacy and
God-given right to make this our home. And we should never allow others to frame
our history according to their self-serving agenda.

The concept of
“dueling narratives” also forms the backdrop of the entire Egyptian experience
which we are now commemorating.

One way of looking at this period is
through the lens of powerlessness and persecution – that we were “selected” from
among others to form a subhuman class, a “nation within a nation” that slaved on
behalf of their masters, suffering every indignity and denigration, until we
reached the lowest state to which a human being can sink.

Plausible as
this approach may be, it tars us with the stigma of a repudiated child, a
“fallen angel” of God, continually condemned to a horrible fate. It reinforces
the persecution complex, a syndrome from which we have finally managed to
extricate ourselves in the resurgent State of Israel.

And so the rabbis
paint for us a very different picture of the Egyptian experience.

While
acknowledging the torturous trials we endured under cruel taskmasters, they see
this period as an “iron furnace” that steeled us for all eternity. Forced down
to Egypt by the divine hand, we would learn – the hard way – the high cost of
disunity, and the salvation that comes from sticking together. We would be honed
and tempered into a nation that could survive any diaspora, no matter how
hostile or bitter, persevering despite the most oppressive of rulers. We would
face 10 plagues and more on every continent, yet – by virtue of our faith,
creativity and the absolute belief in our eventual redemption – we would live to
see another generation.

Through it all, we would be witness to
innumerable miracles. Perhaps they would not be as flashy as the splitting of
the sea, but they would defy logic and nature in their own right, and captivate
the world’s attention. Militarily, financially, sociologically and politically,
Israel has evidenced the hand of God time after time in our own brief statehood
– if we only care to see it. From the depth of Egyptian servitude would come the
Revelation and the Ten Commandments, the entrance into Israel, the conquest of
the land and the building of the Holy Temple. All of this would send the message
that, while we will not be strangers to suffering, we also are destined for
glory.

This is the picture our visionary sages wanted us to see through
the prism of Passover.

IN THE hassidic world of Bobov, they tell the
following story: The Grand Rabbi of Bobov was to marry off his son, his heir, to
the daughter of another hassidic dynasty. As was the custom, the marriage had
been arranged by the parents many years earlier, and thousands of hassidim now
gathered for the momentous occasion of the wedding. The intended bride was
stunningly beautiful, and she waited anxiously to catch a glimpse of her hatan
(bridegroom), whom she had only seen thus far from a distance.

But when
the hatan entered the main hall where the ceremony was to take place, the bride
let out a dreadful shriek.

“No, no!” she screamed. “He is hideously ugly,
repulsive, and I will not marry him!” She then ran off to her dressing room,
vowing not to come out until the guests had left the hall.

The crowd was
shocked and stunned; even the great Rebbe was at a loss for what to do. But then
the hatan stepped forward and announced, “I must go and speak to her in
private.” Though it was normally forbidden for bride and groom to be alone
before the marriage, the rebbe granted his son permission and the groom went off
to see his prospective bride.

When he entered her room, he saw that the
poor girl was beside herself, pacing the floor and crying hysterically. She did
not even want to look at her intended.

But after several minutes, he
managed to calm her down. “I want you to come here and look into the mirror
which is on the wall,” he said to her, lovingly but firmly.

“Tell me what
you see there.”

The bride gazed into the mirror, but could barely move
her lips to speak. For in the glass, she saw the reflection of a regal, handsome
prince of a man and a pathetically ugly woman. “I don’t
understand...”

she finally muttered; “What does this mean; what is going
on here?” “I will explain,” said the future rebbe.

“You see, even before
we were born, you were always meant to be my wife. But you were destined to be
ugly, and I to be handsome. Because I loved you so deeply – even before I knew
you – I prayed with all my heart that I should be the ugly one and you should be
given all of the beauty.

The mirror is showing you the truth – which now
only you and I know – though the world sees a different reality.”

Bride
and groom emerged from the chamber and took their place under the huppa,
creating a new link in the hassidic chain.

Whenever we begin to lose
hope, whenever the sands of struggle start to pile up higher and higher, we must
not succumb to despair or desperation. The true picture of what is happening is
not always that which meets the eye. It more likely lies just beyond, through
the looking glass.

The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center
of Ra’anana; www.rabbistewartweiss.com